Linus Torvalds and friends

You can argue about Linux's official birthday. Heck, even Linus Torvalds thinks there are four different dates in 1991 that might deserve the honor. Regardless, Linux is twenty-five years old this year. Here are some of its highlights and lowlights.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Linus introduces the world to Linux

1991: This message, sent back on August 25th 1991 to the Minix Usenet newsgroup, is usually seen at Linux's birthday. Little did Torvalds know just how wrong he was when he wrote about his new free operating system that it was "just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu for 386(486) AT clones."

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

The first Linux war

1992: Andrew Tannenbaum, operating system guru and creator of Minix, an educational operating system version of Unix, declares "LINUX is obsolete" and Linux's first operating system war is on. In the resulting discussion, Torvalds makes a very telling comment about his vision for Linux which remains true today, "If the GNU kernel [another attempt to create a free Unix-like operating system] had been ready last spring, I'd not have bothered to even start my project: the fact is that it wasn't and still isn't. Linux wins heavily on points of being available now."

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Slackware Linux

1993: There were earlier Linux distributions, such as MCC and Yggdrasil Linux but Patrick Volkerding's Slackware was the first broadly successful Linux distro and it's still being updated and used today.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Debian Linux starts

1993:Debian Linux, the popular community Linux, gets its start. Today, it's the foundation for Mint, Ubuntu, and many other popular Linux distributions.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Red Hat Linux is born

1994: Marc Ewing creates Red Hat Linux. Bob Young buys Ewing's company, merges it with his own, and forms Red Hat, the most successful Linux company to date.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Linux conventions start

1995: Linux has its first trade conference, Linux Expo. Many more will follow Today, there are over a dozen major regional and national Linux trade shows in the US alone.

KDE

SUSE gets started

1996: In the same year, after working with Slackware and Red Hat Linux, SUSE, the top European business Linux, releases its first standalone Linux

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

GNOME

1997: The GNOME desktop starts. It, along with KDE, will become one of Linux's two most important desktops.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

The Halloween Memos

1998: Microsoft starts to target Linux. Eric S. Raymond, an early Linux and open-source leader, reveals the Halloween Documents, which show that Microsoft takes Linux seriously as an enemy and starts to formulate its anti-open-source and Linux campaigns. Over a decade later, Microsoft will change its tune.

IBM invests a billion dollars in Linux

2000: In this year, IBM announced that it would invest a billion dollars in Linux in 2001. It would prove to be IBM's best investment ever.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Linux 2.4 is released

2001: After some delays, Linux 2.4 is released. With this version, Linux becomes competitive with Solaris and other high-end server operating systems.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

SCO Linux wars begin

2003: SCO, formed from the old SCO Unix company and the Caldera Linux business, turns its back on its Linux history and sues IBM and other companies and tries to prove that Linux is a copy of Unix. The company fails, but for years its FUD bedevils Linux's commercial acceptance.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Ubuntu arrives

2004:Ubuntu is created. Built on top of Debian Linux, Ubuntu becomes an extremely popular Linux desktop OS and the most important of all cloud Linux distributions.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Linux rules supercomputers.

2004: More than half the world's fastest supercomputers run Linux. By 2016, only a handful of supercomputers aren't running Linux.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Big business embraces Linux

2005: Any doubt about Linux being a major business player is smashed by Linus Torvalds appearance on the cover of BusinessWeek. The tagline? Linux Inc.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Android arrives

2007: The Open Handset Alliance, which includes Google and numerous hardware vendors, announces Android. It will become the most popular end-user operating system of all as it runs on more than a billion smartphones.

Published: August 25, 2016 -- 19:22 GMT (12:22 PDT)

Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

The stock exchanges move to Linux

2008: The New York Stock Exchange, soon to be followed by many of the other major stock exchanges of the world, switches to Linux for its core operating system. Linux isn't becoming big business. Linux is big business.

Microsoft loves Linux

2014: Maybe the leopard can change its spots? Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declares that Microsoft loves Linux. The company proves it by supporting Linux and open-source software both on its cloud and by deploying it internally.